PAULA FRANCESCA B. ORDOÑEZ CLINICAL PSYCH.

BS PSYCHOLOGY DR. ELIZABETH C. ROCES

Gestalt therapy is a phenomenological-existential therapy founded by Frederick (Fritz) and Laura

Perls in the 1940s. It teaches therapists and patients the phenomenological method of awareness,
in which perceiving, feeling, and acting are distinguished from interpreting and reshuffling
preexisting attitudes. Explanations and interpretations are considered less reliable than what is
directly perceived and felt. Patients and therapists in Gestalt therapy dialogue, that is,
communicate their phenomenological perspectives. Differences in perspectives become the focus
of experimentation and continued dialogue. The goal is for clients to become aware of what they
are doing, how they are doing it, and how they can change themselves, and at the same time, to
learn to accept and value themselves.

Gestalt therapy focuses more on process (what is happening) than content (what is being
discussed). The emphasis is on what is being done, thought and felt at the moment rather than on
what was, might be, could be, or should be.

Basic Concepts

The Phenomenological Perspective

Phenomenology is a discipline that helps people stand aside from their usual way of thinking so
that they can tell the difference between what is actually being perceived and felt in the current
situation and what is residue from the past (Idhe, 1977). A Gestalt exploration respects, uses and
clarifies immediate, "naive" perception "undebauched by learning" (Wertheimer, 1945, p. 331).
Gestalt therapy treats what is "subjectively" felt in the present, as well as what is "objectively"
observed, as real and important data. This contrasts with approaches that treat what the patient
experiences as "mere appearances" and uses interpretation to find "real meaning."

Awareness without systematic exploration is not ordinarily sufficient to develop insight. Therefore,
Gestalt therapy uses focused awareness and experimentation to achieve insight. How one
becomes aware is crucial to any phenomenological investigation. The phenomenologist studies
not only personal awareness but also the awareness process itself. The patient is to learn how to
become aware of awareness. How the therapist and the patient experience their relationship is of
special concern in Gestalt therapy (Yontef, 1976, 1982, 1983).

The Field Theory Perspective

The scientific world view that underlies the Gestalt phenomenological perspective is field theory.
Field theory is a method of exploring that describes the whole field of which the event is currently
a part rather than analyzing the event in terms of a class to which it belongs by its "nature" (e.g.,
Aristotelian classification) or a unilinear, historical, cause-effect sequence (e.g., Newtonian
mechanics). The field is a whole in which the parts are in immediate relationship and responsive
to each other and no part is uninfluenced by what goes on elsewhere in the field. The field
replaces the notion of discrete, isolated particles. The person in his or her life space constitutes a
field.

In field theory no action is at a distance; that is, what has effect must touch that which is affected
in time and space. Gestalt therapists work in the here and now and are sensitive to how the here
and now includes residues of the past, such as body posture, habits, and beliefs. The
phenomenological field is defined by the observer and is meaningful only when one knows the
frame of reference of the observer. The observer is necessary because what one sees is
somewhat a function of how and when one looks.

The Existential Perspective

Existentialism is based on the phenomenological method. Existential phenomenologists focus on

people's existence, relations with each other, joys and suffering, etc., as directly experienced.
Most people operate in an unstated context of conventional thought that obscures or avoids
acknowledging how the world is. This is especially true of one's relations in the world and one's
choices. Self-deception is the basis of inauthenticity: living that is not based on the truth of
oneself in the world leads to feelings of dread, guilt and anxiety. Gestalt therapy provides a way
of being authentic and meaningfully responsible for oneself. By becoming aware, one becomes
able to choose and/or organize one's own existence in a meaningful manner (Jacobs, 1978;
Yontef, 1982, 1983).

The existential view holds that people are endlessly remaking or discovering themselves. There is
no essence of human nature to be discovered "once and for all." There are always new horizons,
new problems and new opportunities.

Dialogue

The relationship between the therapist and the client is the most important aspect of
psychotherapy. Existential dialogue is an essential part of Gestalt therapy's methodology and is a
manifestation of the existential perspective on relationship. Relationship grows out of contact.
Through contact people grow and form identities. Contact is the experience of boundary between
"me" and "not-me." It is the experience of interacting with the not-me while maintaining a self-
identity separate from the not-me. Martin Buber states that the person ("I") has meaning only in
relation to others, in the I-Thou dialogue or in I-It manipulative contact. Gestalt therapists prefer
experiencing the patient in dialogue to using therapeutic manipulation (I-It).

Gestalt therapy helps clients develop their own support for desired contact or withdrawal (L. Perls,
1976, 1978). Support refers to anything that makes contact or withdrawal possible: energy, body
support, breathing, information, concern for others, language, and so forth. Support mobilizes
resources for contact or withdrawal. For example, to support the excitement accompanying
contact, a person must take in enough oxygen. The Gestalt therapist works by engaging in
dialogue rather than by manipulating the patient toward some therapeutic goal. Such contact is
marked by straightforward caring, warmth, acceptance and self-responsibility. When therapists
move patients toward some goal, the patients cannot be in charge of their own growth and self-
support. Dialogue is based on experiencing the other person as he or she really is and showing
the true self, sharing phenomenological awareness. The Gestalt therapist says what he or she
means and encourages the patient to do the same. Gestalt dialogue embodies authenticity and
responsibility.

The therapeutic relationship in Gestalt therapy emphasizes four characteristics of

dialogue:

1. Inclusion. This is putting oneself as fully as possible into the experience of the other without
judging, analyzing or interpreting while simultaneously retaining a sense of one's separate,
autonomous presence. This is an existential and interpersonal application of the
phenomenological trust in immediate experience. Inclusion provides an environment of safety for
the patient's phenomenological work and, by communicating an understanding of the patient's
experience, helps sharpen the patient's self-awareness.

2. Presence. The Gestalt therapist expresses herself to the patient. Regularly, judiciously, and
with discrimination she expresses observations, preferences, feelings, personal experience and
thoughts. Thus, the therapist shares her perspective by modeling phenomenological reporting,
which aids the patient's learning about trust and use of immediate experience to raise awareness.
If the therapist relies on theory-derived interpretation, rather than personal presence, she leads
the patient into relying on phenomena not in his own immediate experience as the tool for raising
awareness. In Gestalt therapy the therapist does not use presence to manipulate the patient to
conform to preestablished goals, but rather encourages patients to regulate themselves
autonomously.

3. Commitment to dialogue. Contact is more than something two people do to each other. Contact
is something that happens between people, something that arises from the interaction between
them. The Gestalt therapist surrenders herself to this interpersonal process. This is allowing
contact to happen rather than manipulating, making contact, and controlling the outcome.
4. Dialogue is lived. Dialogue is something done rather than talked about. "Lived" emphasizes the
excitement and immediacy of doing. The mode of dialogue can be dancing, song, words, or any
modality that expresses and moves the energy between or among the participants. An important
contribution of Gestalt therapy to phenomenological experimentation is enlarging the parameters
to include explication of experience by nonverbal expressions. However, the interaction is limited
by ethics, appropriateness, therapeutic task, and so on.